by Liz Paffel
The humans had been rioting for five days since the east side of their city went up in flames. Infrastructure was at a standstill, and no matter how hard the firemen fought the flames, they barely put one fire out before another began.
The degarzee, the alien creature responsible for causing numerous deadly fires in the city, had emerged after a hiatus. He flipped to a still image captured of one of the creatures only this morning. He still couldn’t believe that was the vicious creature everyone was terrified of.
It looked like one of those plush toys human children carried around, fat and round with a cherubic face and huge grin. If not for the beaked lips and wicked sharp points to the gray scales on their shells, they looked almost… cuddly.
The creatures were deadly and someone in the human government was controlling them. With a sigh, he scrolled back to the chaos in the streets. Observing how they fought each other and focused on their own needs before those of their community members left a bad taste in his mouth. Yiiy, he despised humans.
Their own government was betraying them and killing them off in measure of population control. Only one month ago, the Axxeon had killed off their enemy the Nozing, taking long-awaited revenge for the deaths of Axxeon women. The human government had been secretly working with the Nozing, hoping to turn the two alien races into a war while they plotted genocide against their own people. There was no honor or loyalty where humans were concerned.
To think his King wanted him to choose a human female as a mate.
He spit on the floor in disgust.
No human would ever grow his kinder in her womb. Steeling himself against the thought, Quixx closed the monitor with a swipe of his hand and turned to leave. He paused.
Tryllin, his King, wanted to collect one more round of human females before they left this horrid underwater compound for their new mothership, Axxeon 9. With the chaos around them, it would be nearly impossible to choose the next group of Summoned. Perhaps that meant he would get out of having to choose a mate. As a high-ranking Commander, he should have been gifted a mate a long time ago, but something else had always come first.
The King may well forget about matching him with the riots going on in the city. He grinned. Good. He’d rather chop off a finger or two then be paired with a filthy human.
He had a pang of guilt for thinking so about his new Queen. Alora was human. She was tolerable, but not to the point that he could imagine breeding her.
No woman could ever be Jahtal.
With a growl, he left the communications room and strode down the hall. Jahtal was one of a handful of Axxeon women who had survived a vicious attack several years ago that wiped out the female population. He’d admired her for many spans of time, but he’d been too late in expressing his intentions. She mated another. Had a daughter.
And was lost to him forever.
Good for her. She’d mated one of her own kind, as it should be. Her daughter would grow knowing she had full Axxeon blood. No human would ever be able to replace that honor. Striding down the hall, he took a left and passed the laboratory his new Queen once staffed along with her human friend, Priya.
Noticing her dark head bent low as she worked at the table, he paused.
She was wearing clear goggles and looking into a microscope.
He’d heard she was studying the sample of flesh recovered from the degarzee. Cells within the tissue samples were still alive and Priya hoped to find a way to kill the creature by experimenting with the cells. Since Queen Alora was still in recovery from receiving her new bionic heart, the dark-haired female was working alone.
Crossing his hands behind his back, he watched her, finding himself a bit absorbed in observing her small motions, and the way her head tilted slightly as she peered into the microscope. A red light began to beep on the comlet on his wrist.
His King. He answered and an image of King Tryllin populated into the air.
“Good, you are by the lab. Collect the female scientist and escort her to the prison where you’ll meet Yawndit. They will be taking blood and tissue samples from the Nozing prince.”
Quixx’s eyes narrowed. The prince. He was the last of the dirty species, locked away in the underground prison. If not for Tryllin’s promise to do the Nozing no harm, Quixx would have killed him days ago.
“Of course, my King.”
“Quixx, there is something else.”
His King’s voice had a light, almost amused tone.
“Yes, my King?”
“Be gentle with the human female.” He grinned. “I have plans for the two of you.”
# # #
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I hope you enjoyed reading AXXEON KING’S CAPTIVE!
It’s always fun to imagine worlds and those who inhabit them in a different way. I hope you’ll keep reading with AXXEON COMMANDER’S PET as Quixx and Priya join forces for humanity’s sake… and prepare to arrive at Axxeon-9, if they don’t kill each other first. Who knows? There might just be a little love involved.
-Liz